That was great, and thank you for sharing so many photos.  You've inspired me to share my zig-zagging story from many years ago.  I will try to keep this brief....which, with me, are usually famous last words.  

On one of my first canoe trips, in the early 1980's with my scout troop, our access point was Opeongo.  On our last day, with the length of Opeongo in front of us, our big plan was to wake up at 6am to beat the wind.  We woke up to a strong wind and waves very literally crashing on the shore.  That day is a story of its own, but the zig-zagging story...ok, well, we had three boys in each aluminum canoe; bow, stern, and the poor guy who had to sit on the "monster pack" (canvas portage pack), usually with somebody's spare sneakers sticking in his behind all day.

We pushed off from the eastern arm, which was no small feat (getting away from the surf), and started paddling.  Most depressing paddling ever.  Three of us pulling like crazy, making very little progress against a strong headwind and very large, wind-driven waves pounding on the bow.  I had the stern, and it took everything I had to keep her straight, dead against the waves, but I knew if we went sideways we had a pretty good chance of going over, plus we'd take forever and a month to get the boat going in the right direction again.  I was only able to paddle on the left side, if I went to the right it would start to veer, so the two boys in front of me could switch when they were tired, but I sure couldn't.  (We NEVER should have been on that water, we should have waited a day, but I guess the dad's and leaders decided today was the day no matter what).  Very gradually, we started to overtake one of our other boats....

In the bow of that boat was Mark, renowned hothead.  In the stern, Sam, whose greatest pleasures came from jerking Mark's chain at every opportunity.  I don't recall who the poor unfortunate was in the middle of those two, but Mark and Sam did not get along.  At all.

Keep 'em coming!  I'm really enjoying these!

Thanks very much!  The barred owl line comes from experience.  My first solo canoe trip, I was fast asleep in the tent and one let a call right next to the tent.  Just about blew out my heart's pilot light.

I wear NRS neoprene boots on canoe trips, and they are the only footwear I take with me (I don't like carrying extra weight around for "in camp" footwear vs. "travel" footwear.  I get out of the boat early whenever possible to save wear and tear on the hull, I'm just careful not to overstep the height of the boot.  However, the neoprene boots are not great relative to your instep or ankle support, so I put Cur Rex inserts in there.

The upside is your foot remains dry, and so do your pant legs because the pant legs bunch up on top of the boot (its a real fashion statement).  Your feet also remain pretty warm.  The downside is you sweat, so you absolutely create moisture in the boot.  The socks are soaking when I take them off at night.  My trips are generally 4 days long, I've never had a problem, but I could see how a funky fungus problem could result on a longer trip.  At night, I wedge a couple of sticks inside the boots, to prevent them from collapsing on themselves and trapping moisture in there.  They're still a bit wet on the inside in the morning, but at least I've given them some small opportunity to breathe.

I wear those same neoprene boots to snowblow the driveway, to tromp around the snow around the house (in snowshoes too), in the muck of spring, etc.  Mine have a few years on them, and a pinhole has developed in the heel of one.  I'm going to have to replace them (although I'd like to try a bicycle tire repair patch first...), and the NRS style now has those bungee shoelace things on them.  I'm a little concerned about those getting hooked up on all kinds of stuff, but I guess we'll find out when I get around to replacing my existing ones. It is the primary reason I'm delaying replacing them - I like the velcro on the existing ones.     

I'd like to push through to Boot lake.  I was unable to get there a few years ago, had to give up on it (got lost on a portage, it was a whole thing), and it has bothered me ever since.  

Also, I'm with AndyW.  I'm concerned about my NY plates up there for an ice out trip this year, but there's only so many more years I'll be able to do this, so I'm figuring on going, at least for now.  Usually I'm concerned with the weather forecast, but the forecast of importance now has to do with the political environment, with bad weather ahead, unnecessarily generated on this side of the border, that I wish had never started.  I apologize for bringing up politics at all, it has no place on this forum, I know, but this situation makes me absolutely sick.  I cherish the friendships, which are now strained, and understandably so.  

Shawn - I apologize for hijacking your post, but the topic is pretty close so I hope you don't mind.  

A few years ago, there was an event where you could buy a paddle for $20, paint/decorate it, then donate it, and proceeds went to Friends of Algonquin as I recall.  I bought two of the paddles, one for my daughter (the artist in the family) and one for me (the occasional woodworker but really just a hack in the family).  We never finished them, so I hope there were some proceeds from the $20.  The plan was to donate both, but that ship kind of sailed, and with what I've done (so far) with this paddle, I'd have a really hard time parting with it.

Still, I thought I'd share how mine is coming along.  It remains on my list of things to finish.  There's a ton of work in it so far, and a ton yet to go.  I had the idea of creating a fake park map on the paddle, done in the colors and styles that were used on the Algonquin Park maps of the 1980's.  Then I added a twist, or more accurately, a knot to it.  

This is one of the mathiest projects I've ever undertaken, and somehow I got that knot done.  In my mind, it was going to be smooth and round and edges would be undetectable.  It didn't work out that way, but I like it all the same.  I came up with a bunch of fake lake names, and drew the map on the paddle.  For example, Boot Lake is there, named after Boot Lake, but shaped like Italy.  The whole paddle is like that.  There's a lake on the grip in the shape of a palm holding the paddle.  

This is a project of momentum, and I lost momentum.  My original plan was I would post no photos until it was completed but maybe posting these will shame me back into action.  What remains is printing on all the lake names, doing the legend, little comments about historical "facts" and general notes.  A painstaking activity, my print is bad, but I worked out all the fonts from the old maps and bought the paint-marker-pens to do the job, so with a steady hand a

Beautiful canoe!

I like the unknown of what campsite I'll end up with when I go to a lake.  it leaves a bit of...I'm not sure of the right word....adventure?...to a day.  Kind of a randomness that I enjoy.  Having said that, my wife and I got completely boned on Booth Lake in September, some people must have been off permit, and we traversed the lake for 2 hours looking for an open site but there were none, and we had to stay on a portage, which really.....we were lucky, it wasn't a bad place to put a tent, but still....incredibly annoying.  I like to think site specific reservations would reduce the number of off permit campers, but in those cases when it does happen, you'd know for sure whom it is.  I guess that's good, but it could lead to some pretty heated wilderness arguments.

two stories come to mind. 

One was, many years ago, I lived in a small neighborhood in a rural community.  Two girls show up at my front door (late teens, early 20's),  I think they were pollsters or maybe they were selling something, I really don't recall, but my scam radar went off super-loud in my head.  The story was that the guy who was supposed to pick them up from this neighborhood hadn't shown up, could they use my phone.  I offered to call for them. They provided the number, I got the phone and dialed up, fully expecting scam.  I was convinced I was being set up, and I'm sure my body language conveyed that.  Whoever answered the phone said that the driver had been involved in a car accident, so somebody else was coming to pick up the girls, and was 45 minutes away.  I relayed that bit of news to the two young ladies, with a hint of I-don't-believe-the-story in my voice.  But the reaction of the girls was so pure and stunned and worried for the guy that I immediately knew the girls were telling the truth.

The substitute driver was about 45 minutes away, I had an appointment and had to leave, so I couldn't really offer them help and they said they'd just go out and wait for him.  A few minutes later I drove past the girls, they were waiting on the corner of the secondary road and the road that lead into our neighborhood....the rain was just starting and they were unprepared.  I felt lower than dirt, and cynical.  You just never know.  The shakiest story can be straight as an arrow.

The other one was also in the 90's, when I took my one and only canoe trip with dad.  We got out at the Magnetawan access point, and encountered two Polish couples.  They'd taken a trip from Rain and exited a few days later here, thinking they could walk from one access point to the other.  Nope.  Could I drive the guys over to get their car.  I looked at dad, he says "Its your car".  That day it was pretty clear right off the bat their story was true.  Gave